Faith is a funny thing. For some it defines who they are as a person. It serves as the guiding principle of their entire life. For others, it is a crutch, a convenient excuse, a self-defense mechanism. In a lot of cases, it is both of those things for one person and there is no better example of that than Josh Hamilton.

We all know that Josh Hamilton is a man of great faith. We know this because he takes every opportunity to remind us of that. You can't really blame him though as he was a deeply troubled individual who, through religious faith, fought his demons and literally saved his own life. He would not be the man and player he is today without his faith. No matter how you feel about religion and Hamilton's constant invocation of it, you have to admit that it has served him well.

However, even the best tool can outlive its usefulness. That seems to have become the case with Hamilton who continues to point to faith as he navigates his current struggles. This time though the struggles are on the field instead of off it and the faith he is utilizing is not of the non-secular variety.

Weeks ago, Hamilton was asked about his struggles and the only response that he could offer was his infamous "Oh. Oh, OK." He didn't say it in so many words, but that quote was his way of telling us that he knows that he is struggling but all we have to do is wait and he will turn it around and we will wonder why we ever questioned his ability. To put it another way, we just had to have faith in him. We had to have faith that he has been a great player for many years and that he will be great again sooner or later.

What we didn't realize was that he wasn't just talking to us, he was talking to himself as well. Even Josh doesn't know what is wrong with him right now, or perhaps he is just blind to it as a result of his faith in himself. After his disastrous game last night in which he grounded into three double plays before striking out twice, the only response he could muster when once again pressed on his issues at the plate was, "It's been weird, man."

There is no introspection there. There is no insight to what adjustments, if any, he is making to pull himself out of this struggle. There is no suggestion that he even thinks he needs to do something different. He appears to believe that he is still the same massive talent that he has always been and that before long the talent will shine through. Perhaps Hamilton really is spending hours reviewing video of his at-bats and tinkering with his swing during batting practice and he just doesn't want to let on for some reason, but without him granting us that insight, the only thing we fans see is a guy who is relying solely on faith in his own abilities to magically cure him of his epic struggles.

The June 19th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Trumbo unsure about participating in the Home Run Derby, Scioscia explains the Angels' lack of stolen bases and much more...

The Story: Mark Trumbo will only participate in the Home Run Derby if he makes the All-Star team.

The Monkey Says: It is a little weird when a non-All-Star is in the derby but that is hardly the point. He has an outside shot at making the team though, so he could very well be back in the derby even if he is trying to back out already.

The Story: Scioscia tries to explain the Angels' lack of stolen bases this year.

The Monkey Says: He is going to have a lot more explaining to do after we all watched Josh Hamilton hit into three double plays with Mike Trout standing stationary on first base.

Josh Hamilton grounded into three double plays and struck out the other two times he came to the plate. Mike Trout did everything he could to will his team's offense into something resembling legitimacy. Instead, he was anchored at first, with Scioscia failing to employ his favorite (until this year) offensive tactic of activating his speedy base runners.

The good news is, Albert Pujols is really starting to hit the ball with authority. A night after after 4 hits and one long, long foul ball, Big Albert tied the ballgame up in the eighth inning, slicing a majestic fly ball cutting through the Marine Layer and depositing the baseball into the Angels bullpen and supporting starter Joe Blanton.

By the way:

Joe Blanton was phenomenally good. Seriously, who was this guy? He struck out 11 Mariners over 6 2/3 innings, and did his very best to win the ballgame. Of course, it wouldn't be 2013 Angels baseball if the offense didn't immediately fall into a coma as soon as the starting pitcher finally dominates. But, such is life.

Mariners 3, Angels 2

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Game Notes

-- Kendrys Morales lined a shot just off Erick Aybar's glove to give the Mariners the lead in the 10th. What a terrible trade, by Jerry Dipoto! No? Not a funny joke? Okay.

-- Chris Iannetta, coming in as a pinch-hitter in the 7th inning, walked twice. Again. He now has 40 walks on the season, and 35 hits.

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Halos A-Hole of the Game

Arte's prized signing of the Winter World Series, 2012, is your worst player today.

When Howie Kendrick was first called up back in 2006 it wasn't a question of if he would win a batting title, it was a question of how many would he win? It was believed that Kendrick was some kind of hitting savant who was going to hit .330 just by showing up for work. It was an expectation that was so unrealistic that it bordered on criminal, yet we all bought into it.

Well, after seven full and partial seasons, Kendrick has exactly zero batting titles to his name. In fact, he has only twice hit over .300, back in 2007 and 2008, but he had 353 and 361 plate appearances in those seasons, so he never would've qualified for the title. Since then, Kendrick has been a full-time starter for the Angels and a pretty good one at that, he just hasn't been anything resembling a batting champ.

That's not a knock on Howie, mind you. He is betting .295 for his career, so he has still been a very good hitter, just not a great one. What we found out about Kendrick in the majors is that he is a fairly free swinger who doesn't do so well with breaking balls. If the backbone of your offensive success is feasting on fastballs, it is really going to limit your ability to hit for an elite average.

What those pretty obvious weaknesses, after so many years, finally convinced those who followed the Angels of is that Kendrick would never challenge for a batting title. It just wasn't going to happen. He'll calmly click along for years hitting around .290 and we would all be perfectly happy with that even though we would all reserve the right to make "Howie batting title count" jokes as if we are somehow displeased with having a borderline All-Star second baseman on the team. But then Howie had to go and hit .335 through the first 70 games of the 2013 season.

That sonuvabitch. How dare he go and get our hopes up all over again. Sure, a batting title doesn't have the same kind of prestige it used to, but it represents the supposed potential that we all thought Kendrick had left on the table. Now we have to entertain the idea that Kendrick has finally blossomed into the hitter we all had long hoped he would be now that he is just weeks shy of his 30th birthday.

Dare we dream that dream? Is this performance for real? Can he sustain this level of production not only for the rest of this season but maybe even beyond?

The June 18th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Hamilton doesn't know why he didn't play on Sunday, Madson resumes throwing and much more...

The Story: Ryan Madson has resumed playing long toss but is still dealing with pain.

The Monkey Says: That he is throwing is nice and all, but even he admits that they still don't know what the source of the pain is. This is not looking promising.

The Story: Josh Hamilton still doesn't know exactly why he was scratched from the lineup on Sunday.

The Monkey Says: Scioscia claims it was both mental and physical, but basic logic suggests that it was just that Sosh didn't think Hamilton could be effective against C.C. Sabathia. Why he couldn't make that clear to Hamilton though is a mystery.

Over the years the Angels have done well by themselves by beating up on the drecks of the AL West. If they are going to emerge from their season long slumber, they'd be wise to start doing that very thing once more. Granted, it didn't work out so well against the Astros, but when all else fails, there are the Seattle Mariners.

For a minute there it looked like the Halos were going to squander their opportunity to smack around Seattle. They scored four runs early of Aaron Harang on a dozen hits, but he kept on wiggling off the hook. It would have been just another game where the Angel offense looked productive, but somehow just couldn't turn those hits and walks into runs.

And then the sixth inning rolled around and all of those concerns faded away. Singles, doubles, walks, infield hits, errors. Everything went the Angels way and they finally kicked the tails of an inferior team like they should have. One big seven-run inning erased all those concerns for one night. Let's hope they can keep it going.

Angels 11, Mariners 3

During the recent draft, I happened to be on vacation, and even though I love this game and I LOVE prospects, there isn’t much that could take my focus away from my wife, the Atlantic waves and a cocktail.  Still, I’d done some homework before the draft on some players and did a little more digging following the draft as well.  We here at MWAH do our best to talk to the right people when dealing with prospects we haven’t scouted for ourselves.  Of the ones I have had the opportunity to watch, it’s been in shorter video clips, so I did the best I could.  Obviously, we’ll all get a better read on these guys once the season starts and can start watching them on a regular basis.  However, for now, here’s what we have on the newly drafted Angels prospects.

*Note – If you don’t see anything on a particular prospect that was drafted, just know that I couldn’t find anything substantial on them and have heard nothing from anyone within the Angels organization about this player either.

36th round pick Brandon Bayardi – He’s a very well-built corner OF from UNLV.  An impressive blend of speed, strength and power.  I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking at here, but I am impressed by the numbers Bayardi put up against competition that wasn’t exactly the easiest among the college ranks. 

35th round pick Eric Weiss – A third baseman from the University of Texas.  He played for the Team USA collegiate team, so obviously he was a decent college player.  He doesn’t have a ton of power, but there’s lots of athleticism and projection here.  Very similar to a high school player in that he’s raw but has upside.   Listed as a catcher on the Angels website, so that’s either a mistake or a move they’re hoping to make.

34th round pick LF Eric Aguilera – Aguilera fits the profile of a big athletic OF whose value is tied into his ability to climb the ladder quickly.  Collegiate 34th round picks rarely make any headway in the minors but Aguilera actually has quite a bit going for him.  There’s considerable power, and he has a sweet swing from the left-side.  His coach even claimed he was one of the best hitters in the Midwest.  We’ll have to take a closer look.

28th round pick Miguel Hermosillo – This one I’m actually a bit excited about.  Hermosillo was a running back for the University of Illinois and was considered to be one of the better RB in the country, even projected to possibly play in the NFL.  He’s reportedly excellent defensively, very explosive and quick.  He’s probably the best pure athlete of the draft, and that’s saying something considering who the Angels drafted in the 3rd round.

24th round pick Mark Shannon – Before you do anything else, check out this catch he made:

He has a solid mix of speed and gap power.